The US and world populations continue to be at risk of a pandemic influenza outbreak, analogous to the 1918 Spanish (H1N1) outbreak that killed more than 50 million people. Similarly, weaponized influenza virus remains a major bio-warfare threat. Furthermore, antigenic drift requires individuals seeking protection against influenza to be vaccinated annually, and recent studies have shown that seasonal vaccine products are only weakly efficacious if a mismatch occurs between vaccination strains and circulating strains.
The development of an effective universal influenza vaccine that provides protection across strains of influenza virus would be of enormous value. Evidence that antibodies specific for the conserved stalk domain of the influenza HA protein can protect against infection has prompted a concerted effort to identify additional and better monoclonal antibodies, and to develop a protective vaccine to address this significant unmet medical and public health need.